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Tastes Of The Past

Alf, the Hawkins Shell Fish Bar was just above Burlington Hall on the High Street, I can remember it looked very posh when it opened with multi coloured glass window panes. I hate any shellfish but years ago (late 50s) we used to have the periwinkle man come round on Sunday afternoons selling them from his basket carriage, my husband always bought some and used to pick worm like things out of the shell with a pin and eat them - ugh - I couldn't look.
 
Thanks Sylvia I'm sane again, I love those things you pick out with a PIN :D
 
I'm with you Sylvia.

Rupert, I feel the same about jellied eels as I do about whelks. I could eat a good old lardy cake though. :)

In the 60's we were living in Cyprus, eating kebabs and lots of salads, with lovely local bread, we ate fruit for a pudding. I came back for few weeks holiday, and stayed in Birmingham with the family. I took myself into town on th 5a getting off in Colmore Row. I walked through the arcade to go to Rackhams and was muck struck, as they used to say, when I got to the Birmingham Dairies cake shop. I remember so well stopping in front of the shop and just staring at the cream cakes piled high in the window. I bought a bag full, and sat in the churchyard eating a cream horn. :)
 
I would hope not at 2am, you are night owling again Alf.

It is difficult to find fresh cream cakes here, unless you can find an Italian Bakery. As far as I know we don't have one around here, you have to go into Scarborough ( near Toronto) where there is a larger Italian community. The fresh cream cakes have to be kept in refrigerated counters and the cake shops don't usually have them here :'(

I just loved them when I was young and now when I can get one. :smitten:

Sweet dreams.
 
Canada definitely is a cream cake wasteland. I used to love any kind of cream cake when I lived in Brum. George Baines Cream Horns and Pineapple Creams picked up on the way to work :smitten:. Victoria Cream and Jam Sandwich Cakes were a Sunday treat very often at home and, of course, the scrumptious Kunzel's delights. Alas, there were no cream cakes whatsoever in Peterborough, Ontario, where I lived for a couple of years and same thing when I moved to Toronto. I would walk miles looking for lamb chops for a start since they were so hard to find and also bakeries selling cream cakes.........found a few lamb chops on occasion but no cream cakes. I used to dream about them at times and after also having the European cream delicacies before I went to Canada I used to dream about those as well.

When I came to Brum on visits I would head to the nearest bakery for a cream cake fix. Pattison's was still in business then. Later on I would visit Druckers and Greggs and small bakeries in villages I was visiting. Cream teas down in Dunster had to be relived when I was down that way on holiday. I was always so pleased that Gregg's were all over the place in the Midlands and always had lots of lovely cakes.

It was the same in Vancouver for years.....a cream cake wasteland........then slowly the odd European bakery would have a very small selection....now, there are shops all over the place selling fresh cream cakes and European tortes. Sadly, I don't fancy them like I used to but always enjoy an eclair or two when in Brum. :laugh:
 
:angel: Wimbush's 'CREAM ROOM GIRLS 1966' left to right:
Phyllis, Susan, Myrna, Christine Brown, Nellie, Margaret, June, Janet, (Me). Behind me are: Lilly (the tall girl) and Dora (the shorter one).
The photo was taken by one of two big refrigerators that held all the finished cream cakes, until they were dispatched to the vans.

I still love and eat cream cakes :smitten:
 
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Cream cakes don't to much for me. How about some kosher Black Country pork scratchings then? You can still get good ones in a few places.
Peter
 
Wimbushes made a great jam doughnut with sugar on the outside. That or a Worcester Lardy Cake would be an agonizing decision.
I have never had tripe and onions, one of the above might make a nice desert to that.
Rupert.
 
If we want anything with fresh cream I do it myself now as it is too hard to find.
We have a meal with some English friends every Christmas and one of the things I always get a request for is Trifle.
That is something we still love but only have a couple of times a year. :smitten:

I can relate to everyting you say Jenn and just like you on the rare occasions I am in Britain I aim for the bakery. :smitten: :smitten:
 
Right on, Peter...When in Brum I am in the Indoor Market casing all the butcher shops
looking for pork scratchings. I have always found some along with another thing they don't have in Canada......... Pork Pies. I have found some great pies made by country butchers in the Indoor Market. Lovely grub. I also like watching the "Meat" sell offs in the afternoon in the Market...reminds me of the old days down the Bull Ring. The butchers are real characters and really know how to "strut their stuff".
 
Chris, I liked the photo of the Wimbush Cream Room girls. My youngest brother Bill was an
apprentice with Wimbush's in the late l960's training for Transport Fleet Management
but starting in at Mechanics level. I remember my mother writing and telling me that the power failed one day at the factory and he brought home several flats of cream cakes
which he took around to all the neighbours in our street. He was very popular after that
 
A friend of ours had a grocery stall in the old market, I think it was called Mountfords. Peter was such a character and still is.
We were lucky enough to go out to a country club in Coleshill for lunch last year with a group of our old friends and he organized it.
It was great being with them all. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

Even after 29 years we still miss them :'(
 
food food and more food.

hot spudman old square hot chesnuts.
needing a pin for ya pomigranits?
fresh cream horns lardy cakes pineapple tarts custard tarts
and the band played on..
happy days. regards to all dereklcg.:)
 
bread

Talking about bread, the nearest i have tasted to unsliced bread of yesteryear, is Morrisons Farmhouse crusty loaf. I sometimes pick one up that is still warm, and i can,t resist the crust with BUTTER and some raspberry jam. Yummy :p
 
C ottage Loaf

Can you still buy a cottage loaf in Brum? They don't sell them in Canada as far as I know - That for me would be a real taste of the past. . .
 
re nose bag

Crust bread,you can get all kinds here in pwllheli,i like the soda bread,Yak pork pies i have not eaten a pie for years,in case sweeny tod made it.
 
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food

reading about bread and faggots and mushy peas, what about the old pigs pudding or black pudding they call it now8)
 
Re Food

I know one thing when we were kids we eat some wierd food,tripe.pigs puddin,pigs brains fried,cows heels,pigs heads,still hot.That shop across from aston hip,sold all sorts.I bet rod was allways there. peter martin
 
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food

hi pete i can remember my dad eating chittlings with vinegar on them. They looked bloody awful so i dread to think what they tasted like !!
 
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re food

TERESA.hold them under the tap.like a hose pipe to get the grit out,then eat them.salty but yummy. peter martin
 
food

ughh!! sounds revolting
 
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Chitterlins are nice with bread and butter, not had them for a long time though. Last time we saw them was in the Bull Ring market but they had been pressed and sliced, I cant remember them being served like that we we were kids?
 
Rusty's in Soho Hill used to serve excellent chitlins - sadly, I think that restaurant is long gone. There was also a great tripe and chitlin shop opposite the Ratpan pub in Trinity Road, Aston - also long gone. The last time I ate them was in Louisiana, USA, where they are known as soul food. You can also get them in good Chinese restaurants such as Chung Ying's, but just now I'm afraid I can't tell you what they're called on the menu...

My old man liked pig's foot, which my mother hated cooking...but I could eat one now!

Big Gee

PS: I've only been subscribing to this webring for about 3 days, but it's completely addictive! I never even knew it existed until a week ago!
 
Addictive you can say that again, if I stay away for a day it takes another Half day to catch up:)
 
Mom and Dad used to enjoy tripe with onions, chitterlings, pigs foot. There were two pork butchers in Witton, George Dowling next to Birds the greengrocers, and Browns down on the corner by the Witton island, am I right in thinking they are all pig meat? The smell was enough for me to vanish until they had fininshed eating. :Aah:
 
I think the best bread around today is the bread baked by Morrisons Supermarket. The other supermarkets seem to use pre made or frozen dough and doesn't keep too well, but Morrisons tastes like bread used too (well, almost) and is the only one that freezes well.
No - I don't work for or have shares in Morrisons!
 
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